Health Information Management Systems and Surveillance 

Introduction

The ability of health agencies to collect, analyze, and make effective use of health information is critical to the success of health agency functions. PIHOA’s Regional HIMS Initiative aims to assist member jurisdictions to improve the collection and use of data for planning and decision-making processes across a variety of domains, including but not limited to: vital statistics, community-based surveys, medical records, including electronic health records (EHRs), disease registries, administrative data and IT networks.  This initiative was established by the PIHOA Board in 2010 and continues to be an integral aspect of PIHOA’s on-going work.

Current Activities

Current efforts are focused on: 1) supporting and administering the USAPI NCD Core Monitoring and Surveillance and Monitoring Framework, including on-going technical support to USAPI health agencies to develop and implement their national/state-level NCD Monitoring and Evaluation Plans, Annual NCD Profiles, and NCD Data Dashboards, and conduct national NCD Hybrid Surveys ; 2) delivery of the joint SPC-PIHOA-FNU-CDC Strengthening Health Interventions in the Pacific (SHIP) program comprised of Tier 1 Data for Decision-Making (DDM) Training Program (Post-Graduate Certificate Epidemiology Technician); Tier 2 Operational Research (Post-Graduate Diploma in Applied Epidemiology); and Tier 3 Master’s in Applied  Epidemiology; 3) technical support for EHR/HIMS readiness and expansion; and 4) technical support to USAPI federally-qualified community health centers (CHCs) to set up/enhance systems and processes for improved reporting against Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-required Unified Data Sets (UDS).

In March 2015, PIHOA members endorsed the establishment of the Regional Epidemiology Unit (REU) comprised of PIHOA staff Epidemiologists and CDC Field Epidemiologists co-located with PIHOA, who work collectively to strengthen regional and jurisdiction-level surveillance and epidemiological capacities, systems and processes for NCDs, communicable diseases, and other emerging, outbreak-prone diseases of public health significance (e.g. Zika).

Contact Information

Dr. Gillian Dunn, MPH, DrPH

Health Information and Management Systems and Surveillance Coordinator

Email: gilliand@pihoa.org

Telephone: 808-537-3131

Address: PIHOA Honolulu Office

733 Bishop St, Suite 1820

Honolulu, HI 96813